


Two Days After

by AVernedi



Series: Dinner at Home [3]
Category: Ookiku Furikabutte | Big Windup!
Genre: Bisexuality, Established Relationship, Future Fic, M/M, Professional Baseball Player Tajima Yuuichirou, Teacher Hanai Azusa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-24 03:40:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30066099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AVernedi/pseuds/AVernedi
Summary: Momokan regarded him with a smile. "What about you? You were the one who was all over the news last night."Hanai sighed, feeling a flush come over his face. "Yeah." He'd known what he was getting himself into, obviously. He'd talked to Yuu's agent and the team's general manager and the coach and a long list of people. He'd made sure all his social media accounts were locked. Inviting the original Nishiura people to the proposal was as much for his own comfort as for Yuu's benefit. And still none of that had fully prepared him to see clips of himself replaying on the evening news. "It's a lot to take in though, I gotta say."Now with art!
Relationships: Hanai Azusa/Tajima Yuuichirou
Series: Dinner at Home [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2199579
Comments: 6
Kudos: 7





	Two Days After

**Author's Note:**

> You should probably read previous work in the series, [The Marriage Amendment Act](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29919372) if you haven't already since this takes place the day after.  
> Also my usual note for anyone who might not have read the other works in the series yet: If you read the manga you find out Hanai genuinely hates getting called Azusa. In chapter 127 he explicitly asks everyone not to use it. So in this fic, Tajima calls him "Azsun" as a nickname.
> 
> Shout out to the four of us still checking the Oofuri tag eyyy

That Sunday morning found Azsun sitting in the kitchen of the Tajima house, at breakfast with the starting catcher for the Hanshin Tigers. Abe Takaya had filled out well since their high school days. At 26, he, like his father before him, was built like a brick shithouse. Azsun was honestly a little envious. He tried to stay fit too, but his own muscle had only ever been long and lean. His biceps just didn't stretch the sleeves of his shirts the way Takaya's did. 

The sleeve stretched now as Takaya raised the smoothie pitcher to top up first Azsun's glass and then his own. This particular smoothie was apparently nefarious among the Tigers. "It keeps me regular," Takaya said, dead-pan as he poured some out. "We call it 'See You Tomorrow.'"

"Grea-aat." Still, Azsun took his glass. A healthy digestive tract meant a healthy body, right?

"So," Takaya said, returning to his previous story. "Our captain takes him aside and tells him, 'You know the rules of being a teammate. Don't sleep with another man's wife and don't sleep with another man's mother.' And that's when _I_ said, 'Yeah, but isn't the real problem that he cheated on his girlfriend?' And they all looked at me like I was crazy."

"They sound like a pack of wild animals." Azsun reached for some more mackerel. 

"They're shaved apes," Takaya growled. 

"You ever look at some people and think 'you are too stupid to belong in civilization?'"

"All the time." Takaya took a sip of his smoothie. "Oh, completely unrelated but, you remember Kawai Kazuki?"

Azsun frowned. "Yeah, wasn't he the catcher for Tosei High when we played them?"

"Yeah. So, he plays for the Blue Oceans now. We share workout routines." Takaya frowned slightly. "You know how much he says he can deadlift? _180kg._ "

Azsun whistled. "Damn. That's impressive."

"Right?" Takaya popped another bite into his mouth and chewed furiously. "I hate him."

"What do you deadlift?"

"175." He watched Takaya's frown deepen. "Except, I can't even really hate him. Kazu-san's a good guy, and he never brags about it. So I'm stuck hating myself for _not_ hating him."

Azsun watched him for a second, unsure. Then he snorted. "You know, you never used to have a sense of humor."

"Yeah well. I used to be in high school." Takaya dug around in his bowl with his chopsticks. "You'd be surprised what leaving puberty can do for a guy."

Azsun laughed. "No argument here."

At that moment the door slid open. "There you two are!" And Momoe Maria stuck her head into the Tajimas' kitchen. "Glad I caught you, I was worried I might not before you had to leave."

They both rose from their seats. "Hi Coach!" Azsun said at the same time Takaya said, "Coach, hey."

At 33, Momoe still looked almost exactly the same to Azsun as she had ten years ago. It was only by looking at pictures that he could really tell her age. Even now she was healthy as a horse. The biggest difference was her hair, shorter these days, cut into a pixie cut that framed her face and made her look impossibly chic and mature. Yuu still teased Azsun for having a bit of a crush on her back in high school.

("You got a type or somethin'?" he asked, laughing.

"Shut up!" Azsun would insist. Still, he had to admit there _was_ a certain amount of overlap between the woman he'd admired so much in high school and the man who'd become his fiancé. They were both gregarious, unafraid, hyper-competent, local legends...Yeah, fine. He could see it.)

"Please, sit down," Azsun told her. "Do you want some tea? Did you eat?"

"Such a gentleman," Momoe said with a laugh, settling in. "I did eat. I got up early to help my dad. Some tea would be lovely though, thank you."

Takaya handed him one of the empty cups from another seat at the table and Azsun filled it for her. "Did you have a good morning?" he asked her.

She rewarded him with a smile. "I did. What about you? You were the one who was all over the news last night."

Azsun sighed, feeling a flush come over his face. "Uh, yeah." He'd known what he was getting himself into, obviously. He'd talked to Yuu's agent and the team's general manager and the coach and a long list of people. He'd made sure all his social media accounts were locked. Inviting the original Nishiura people to the proposal was as much for his own comfort as for Yuu's benefit. And still none of that had fully prepared him to see clips of himself replaying on the evening news. "It's a lot to take in though, I gotta say." Getting out of Tokyo for the weekend had been a really good idea.

"Do you regret it?" Takaya asked with all of his usual tact.

"No." He sighed again. "You saw how happy he was. And besides, this way it's out in the open. People aren't gonna be trying to solve the mystery of 'who is Tajima dating?'" He hesitated before voicing the next part but then figured, what did he have to lose? "Honestly, it's my work I'm worried about. I don't know how we're gonna get anything done tomorrow. Everyone's gonna have so many questions."

"Were you already out to your boss?" Momoe asked him. 

"Yeah, for the past year or so."

"And your co-workers?"

"Yeah."

She smiled. "Well that's the important part. As for your students..." She folded her arms across her chest. "You know, there might be some value to being pre-emptive about it. What if you started the conversation before they could?" 

Azsun frowned. "How? They're going to ask me the minute they get through the door." 

"Well, what do you usually do when you're trying to set the tone for a class? Surely you must have some procedure in place for this kind of thing." 

And just like that, Azsun felt the lightbulb go off. 

Momoe smiled, recognizing the dawning comprehension on his face. "Hm? Did inspiration strike you there, Captain?" 

"Yeah..." he breathed. "Yeah, I think so." He felt himself brighten. "Thanks."

Momoe smiled back. "You always made it easy for me. I knew you'd come up with something." Her posture eased a little as she settled herself in at the table in earnest. "So what have we been talking about?" And Takaya began to fill her in.

"Did you have fun with Momokan?" Yuu asked later as they were pulling into the parking lot. He and Azsun had driven Ren to the train station. He was going up to visit his cousin Ruri in Gunma before flying back to Sapporo the next day.

"Uh, yeah." Azsun glanced over at him. "She gives good advice."

"Oooh, advice about what?" Yuu's eyes took on a particular kind of gleam.

"I'll tell you later." He looked at Ren in the rear-view as he spoke but Ren seemed to be off in his own little world, engrossed something on his phone. 

Azsun had always been terrible at anticipating Ren's thought process, second-worst only to Takaya when it came to being able to interpret meaning in his jumbled sentences. Takaya and Ren were dear to him (and to each other) but that didn't help any of them when it came to what Yuu called 'the total gongshow of watching you guys try to interact.'

They all climbed out of the car. "This is you, buddy!" Yuu told him. 

"This is me!" Ren agreed. 

"Got everything you need?" Azsun asked. 

Ren patted at his overnight bag. "Let's see...I packed extra underwear," he murmured to himself. "And I took my toothbrush..." Then he brightened. "Oh, but Ruri told me if I forgot anything she has extras." He smiled at them and Azsun smiled back. Ren had gotten better at disrupting his own tunnel-vision since high school.

"That was nice of her," Yuu said.

"And you have the cream we sent for her, right?" Azsun asked. Ruri was pregnant. They were sending Ren with a cream for sore joints that Yuu's sister swore by. 

"Yes! I put it in here." Ren patted the pocket in question, feeling around until his fingers landed on the lump that was the fat little jar. 

"Hey, excellent." Azsun held out his hand. "Well Ren it was good to see you. I appreciate you making time for this—"

Ren slapped his hand.

Azsun blinked. "Wha—" Yuu made a suspicious-sounding cough.

"Congratulations!" Ren chirped up at him. 

"Y-yeah." Azsun looked at his hand as subtly as possible. _Low-five? I guess?_ "Thanks?" But Ren had already moved onto Yuu. 

Yuu held out his hand and Ren took it, like a normal person. Azsun stared at them. "Safe travels, 'kay?" Yuu said as they shook hands vigorously. There was a kind of manic quality to his smile that meant he was trying not to laugh. Azsun could feel himself glaring. This was Yuu's fault somehow, he decided.

"What the hell was that?!" he hissed after Ren had disappeared into the station. 

Yuu laughed as he headed around to the passenger's side. "You taught him about high-fiving. He thinks it's your guys’ thing."

"What? When did I teach him that?"

"Remember when we played Bijou back in first year?"

" _Ten years ago?_ " Azsun slid into the driver's seat. "Why's he remembering this _now?_ We didn't high-five last time!"

"He and I were reminiscing earlier. I brought up that game."

"See," Azsun said, shaking his head even as he put the keys in the ignition. "See, I knew this was your fault somehow." 

Yuu stuck out his tongue. "Hey, wanna hear the thirsty comments people are making about you on my Instagram?" he asked, digging his phone out of his pocket.

"What?" Damnit, he could feel his ears getting red. "Who's making comments?"

"Lotsa people! My engagement photo really blew up, you know." It had been that still from the stadium's audience cam, the picture of Yuu kissing his nose. The same picture had been in the newspapers, had been on the newscasts. His mom had a clipping from the paper on her wall.

"Well, aren't you special," Azsun muttered, feeling the blush spreading onto his face.

"There's a few calling you 'daddy material,'" Yuu said. 

Ugh, full blush now. "Shut up, there are not." 

"There totally are! Oh, a lot of people said they cried when they saw the video too."

"Thirst...crying?"

"I think mostly like crying 'cause we're so cute but hey, who knows? People are weird." Yuu scrolled a little further down. "Oh hey, a couple of requests for a threesome."

"Tell those people to fuck off." 

"On it. Ha! This one says, 'Is it weird that I want Tajima-senshu's fiancé to step on me?'"

His whole body was too hot, and not in a pleasant way. He knew what he looked like and he didn't think his looks warranted this level of attention. It was just like back in high school, when all those girls had confessed to him. He felt liked he'd somehow tricked people into thinking he was better-looking than he was. Besides. Yuu already thought he was handsome. Everyone else's opinion was window-dressing. "It's definitely a weird thing to comment on someone's _engagement photo,_ " he growled. 

Instantly Yuu turned towards him, twisting in the passenger's seat to look at him head-on. "Hey, is this making you uncomfortable? I can stop." The concern in his voice was plain and honest.

Azsun sighed. "...I don't want to be a downer about this," he said. Even as he spoke, he could feel his anxiety creeping in. 

"But it's our engagement! It's supposed to be fun for both of us!" Yuu reached out. Azsun took one hand off the wheel and let Yuu lace their fingers together. The dry warmth of Yuu's palm comforted him— _Warm hands are a sign of a fully relaxed state of mind,_ Shiga-sensei's voice rang in his mind, a well-trodden memory. 

"Can you ask me again tomorrow? As long as work goes smoothly tomorrow, I should be able to laugh about this whole thing."

"Yeah of course." Yuu gave his hand a squeeze. Their joined fingers rested on the console. "Is that what you were asking Momokan about?"

"Oh. Yeah it was." 

"Well she's definitely got experience in getting students to listen," Yuu said happily. "Just think. You learned from the best, right?"

And despite himself, Azsun felt a smile starting to tug at the corners of his mouth. "Yeah. I guess I did."

When Azsun arrived at the learning academy on Monday morning, he was armed with a plan. After politely accepting congratulations and answering a question or two from co-workers, he headed to his classroom. The first thing he did was write on the board. Taking a step back, he examined his handiwork with a critical eye. He had five minutes until class started. Did he want to change the wording? No, the decision had been made. The best thing for him now was to be sitting calmly when the first student walked in. He took his seat. 

The first students were the two Australians. "Sensei!" Thomas crowed. "We saw the news. What's it like to be famous?"

"We were all yelling on our phones all weekend," Maria told him. "We have questions!"

"Good morning Thomas, good morning Maria," Azsun said. "Read the board please."

As one their heads turned towards the chalkboard. "'Please write any questions you have for me on a sheet of paper,'" Thomas read haltingly. He still struggled with reading comprehension. "'Use at least one vocabulary word from this week. After you ask your question, you will be expected to turn it in for a mark. Any questions that are not written down will not be answered.'" 

"Sensei-iii!" Maria protested. "Our vocabulary this week is about the work-place. How can we use it to ask you about your boyfriend?"

Azsun smiled. "Get creative."

The next people to arrive was a group from Korea, four students who went everywhere together. "Good morning Hanai-sensei," the most vocal of them, said. "I saw the news last night."

"Good morning, Daejung. Please read the board."

By the time the third group arrived in class, Thomas and Maria had taken over for him. "Pssst!" they hissed when people tried to ask. "Read the board!" And by the time the last person showed up, a kindly middle-aged Filipino woman named Ophelia, the entire class was chorusing, "Read the board!" before she could even get her greeting out.

Azsun was proud. 

It was Ophelia in the end, who solved the vocabulary challenge. Azsun had left fifteen minutes at the end of class for questions. When he asked if anyone was ready to go, she was the first to raise her hand. She was always dressed elegantly and her drop earrings brushed her cheeks as she stood to her full 160cm. 

"'Cover letters,'" she began. There was a smattering of chuckles throughout the class. Azsun, from where he was leaning against his desk, smiled tolerantly. "'Cover letters' are a way for us to make a first impression on our employers. When did you meet your fiancé and what kind of first impression did he make?"

The class broke out into applause. Even Azsun had to hand it to her. "Very well done, Ophelia-san." He took a moment to think. "We met playing baseball in our first year of high school. I thought he was very talented, and very full of energy." He'd also thought Yuu was a little stupid, but honestly the day the team had all met, Azsun had been kind of a jerk. He tried not to think about it.

Thomas was next. "'References' are people we ask to speak well for us when we are applying for a job. They should be people who like us. When did you and Tajima-senshu start liking each other?" Azsun wondered if he had heard the '-senshu' honorific from the news.

He snorted. "Well, hopefully your references don't like you the same way your fiancé likes you." There were chuckles. "I realized I liked him right around the time we graduated from high school." He was aware his face was getting a little red. "But I'm not really sure when I started exactly." 

"You liked him for a long time before you realized you liked him?" Maria asked, clarifying.

"Yes," Azsun admitted. How did that saying go? Something about 'being in the middle before you knew you'd begun.' To get away from his own red face maybe, he glanced up at the clock. "Okay, we have about a minute left, I think we have time for one more question...Yes, in the back."

"What was the 'timesheet' like when you started dating?"

Azsun felt his eyebrow go up. "Are you asking me _when_ we started dating?" 

"Yes." 

"It was after our second year in university. We had kept in touch after high school, and we saw each other on holidays, so we were able to stay close." He pushed himself up off the desk and reached for his water bottle. "Okay, everyone please make sure your name is on your question sheet and put it on my desk. I'm going to be doing this exercise with the other classes as well, so if you have friends in another class, you can ask them if they learned anything else you might want to know. See you tomorrow," he added as the bell went. 

"Thank you, sensei!"

The other classes had many of the same questions. They also asked things like, "Have you always liked guys?" (Probably, he just didn't know it at the time) and "How long have you been together?" (Six years) and "When is the wedding?" (Still deciding on a date, but sometime next year.) Most of the students were respectful and congratulatory. That was how it tended to go in group settings, especially with adults. Azsun had been banking on this, even if he couldn't stop himself from feeling a little anxious at first.

He had dismissed his last class and was organizing his papers at his desk, when he realized that someone was hanging back.

There wasn't much resemblance between Maria from Australia and Momoe Maria from Nishiura High. This Maria was a recent high school graduate, bubbly and prone to dramatics. At first he'd thought she was just slow to leave, but as the moments passed, he could tell she was deliberately waiting, remaining in her seat even as her things had already been packed. Only when the last of her classmates had left, did she approach Azsun's desk.

"Hello Maria," he said, voice calm even as his stomach was swooping. "What can I do for you?"

"Hello sensei." She was fiddling with her own hands. "Is it okay if I talk in English?"

Azsun's English was one of the best among the teachers at the center. It meant that he was often given the entry-level Japanese classes, and asked to communicate when a beginner-level student had a problem. It wasn't always helpful of course, because there were still plenty of students who didn't have English as another language, but it was helpful enough. Like now. "Sure," he said.

More fiddling. "I was just wondering about your fiancé," she admitted. Azsun had to stop himself from tensing up. "Because...you reckon you've liked men for a long time, right? Do you like women _and_ men? Or just men?"

 _Getting right to the point, huh?_ Azsun thought. "I like both," he said.

"How can you tell?"

Azsun blinked. "I'm sorry?"

"How can you tell when you like both? How do you know it's not just like, wanting to _be_ like that person?" 

_Ah._ And the anxiety in his body was replaced by understanding. "Well, for one thing, there's a difference between wanting to be someone and wanting to kiss them," he said. 

"But how do you _know_ the difference?" she insisted.

He considered for a moment. "I guess the first thing I'd tell you is that you don't have to call yourself anything you're not comfortable with. But then the second thing I'd tell you is that something that really helped me was realizing that there are straight guys out there who never have to ask themselves that question. They can look at a guy they admire and they'll never want to kiss him." God bless his college roommate, explaining this. "I'm not saying that if you're questioning then you're already not straight. It's just that realizing that this _wasn't_ just something that everyone asked themselves was what helped me figure some things out." 

Maria's brown eyes took on an internal kind of focus, nodding slowly as she turned these words over in her head. "Okay," she said finally. "I guess that helps."

Azsun felt a wave of sympathy. He remembered the eternal back and forth in his own mind. At times it had just felt like everything people tried to say just made him more confused. "For what it's worth," he said. "I think many bisexual people don't have an 'ah-ha!' kind of moment. For me, I just woke up one day and couldn't see the point of denying it anymore." 

More contemplation. "But something must have happened right? To make you stop denying it?"

"Well sure." Azsun shrugged. "My fiancé happened." 

"...Oh." 

_Yeah,_ he thought. _Oh._

The silence stretched as they both sat with their thoughts for a long moment. "Well," Maria said finally. "Thanks sensei."

"Of course. Please feel free to ask me if you ever have any more questions." 

With a slow nod, she turned and finally headed for the door. When she was gone, Azsun leaned back in his chair and stared out the window for a long, long time. His thoughts were hard to organize. There were just too many of them. Eventually he pulled himself out of it, and, collecting his things, headed to the staff room. 

When he checked his phone, he found he had a text from Yuu. ' _hey baby, i'm coming to pick you up,_ ' it said. ' _hope you had a good day!!'_

He felt the smile come over his face that often did when talking to Yuu. _'I did. See you soon,'_ he responded. Then, _'You better not respond if you're driving. I mean it!'_

The reply was instant. ' _already here B)'_

_'Good. I'm on my way down.'_

A few of his co-workers nodded to him on his way down the stairs. Azsun nodded back, trying not to look like he was hurrying. He opened the door to the car-port and felt himself relax at the sight of Yuu, parked across the lot, leaning up against the trunk of their car. One or two other people were leaving, casting him a curious gaze as they went. He looked impossibly cool and laissez-faire, the regular season sun giving him even _more_ freckles, and a tan that glowed a healthy peach in the late afternoon light. His arms were bare and folded comfortably over his chest, showing off the muscle definition of both. He had Azsun's sunglasses on his face and he had that same wide smile that had made half the boys in their high school league in love with him. 

_Now there's a bisexual awakening if I ever saw one,_ Azsun thought as he approached. "Excuse me," he teased, buoyed by his successful day in class. "Are you lost? Does this look like the Meiji Jingu Stadium to you?" 

"I'm looking for someone," Yuu returned, grinning. "I'm trying to get some guy named Hanai Azusa to take me home and step on me."

Azsun wrinkled his nose at him, playful. "Oh, fuck you." 

Yuu just wiggled his eyebrows and held out his arms for a hug. They kept it brief, but Yuu's warmth and scent and presence were as grounding as they always were. "Come on," Yuu said, turning towards the car. "We got just enough time to hit the drive-thru before I gotta be at the field." 

"Which drive-thru?" Azsun said, already disapproving. "Name to me what drive-thru serves food that you're allowed to eat right now."

"Well that's why I'm bringing you with me. If anyone asks, it was all for you!" Yuu flashed him his most winning smile. 

Azsun huffed as he slid into the passenger's seat. "You're not cute." 

"Yeah?" Yuu looked at him over the rims of his own sunglasses. The light caught his teeth, making them seem sharper. "What am I then?"

 _Incorrigible. Undeniable. Someone I'm in love with._ "My chauffeur. Start the damn car."

Yuu's sly little grin lasted them all the way to the restaurant.

**Author's Note:**

> As a gift to myself I made Tajima's [insta post](https://ibb.co/0K1Bh82)


End file.
